Information Use and Its Effects on the Valuation of Agricultural Genetic Resources.

This article examines the effects of information on stated preferences for an unfamiliar environmental good: agricultural genetic resources. We define two groups of respondents based on their use of additional information, and we model information use and its effect on individual preferences and scale. Our findings indicate that sociodemographic and attitudinal variables affect the use of information. We observe individual preference heterogeneity but no significant differences in scale between the information groups. The results highlight the importance of genetic resource conservation and controlling for the effects of information use in choice experiment models for unfamiliar goods. (JEL Q51, Q57)